Thursday, September 27, 2012

In this special edition of The Cinephiliacs, Peter averts from the regular format for the next three weeks to report back from his annual visit to the New York Film Festival, a favorite cinephile event of his. To help him break down the first week of films, freelancer extraordinaire Simon Abrams joins him to discuss a cornucopia of films that explore cinema, religion, history, and the imaginative process. They dive into the bold use of digital imagery in De Palma's Passion, clash on the complex morality in Mungiu's Beyond the Hills, and elate over the joy of Renais's You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet. Also included in this episode are thoughts on Christian Petzold's Barbara, Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha, Valeria Sarmiento's Lines of Wellington, and Peter Strikland's Berberian Sound Studio.

Monday, September 10, 2012

“I’d like to think while I’m watching a film, I try and
approach it on its own terms. I think to myself ‘What is the review this movie
wants? And what is the review this movie is going to get?’ But really it’s
about asking what is the ideal version of this movie? What is it trying to be
and to what extent does it get there?”

New
York Magazine film critic Bilge Ebiri loves films that he can constantly
revisit and pry deeper and deeper, so Peter has no problem prying into Bilge’s
own head for his conversation on The
Cinephiliacs. Bilge talks about his early exposure to the Hollywood New
Wave in Turkey as a young boy, and then traces his cinephilia through his
desires to trying to become a filmmaker (including working on a film by Nikita
Mikhalkov) before finding his voice as a critic. The two then discuss his love
of films that indulge their wildest pleasures, some of his favorite auteurs (a
list that includes Terrence Malick and Christopher Nolan side by side), and his
own feature film, New Guy. Finally,
the two dive into the truly daunting task of investigating Stanley Kubrick’s
masterpiece Barry Lyndon and try and
make sense of a film that asks us to identify with “The Past,” yet always undercuts
and manifests itself as something even more audacious.

MUBI

About The Cinephiliacs

The Cinephiliacs is a podcast exploring the past and future of cinephelia. Film critic Peter Labuza has interviewed critics, programmers, academics, filmmakers, and more about their relationship to film and film culture. Additionally, each guest will bring in a particular favorite film and discuss it with Labuza. Indiewire declares, "If you want to hear film critics talk at length about their craft, there are few better places on the Internet" and Keyframe Daily has called it "Exhibit A" for the future of film culture